12-22-2009, 12:10 PM

Greetings,

I am a Computer Science Engineer, with lots of experience in Linux and about 2 years ago moved into the fantastic Mac OS. Still, I have a (maybe naive?) problem that I cannot solve (nor find help in the Web):

I use Leopard 10.5.8 and often my fist copy and paste (cmd+c and then cmd+v) does not paste the more recent (cmd+c). This occurs very frequently when I use MacVim, but also sometimes when copying text from/to applications like firefox, terminal, MS word, etc.

This is quite annoying: instead of pasting the recent copy, it pastes the previous one. So I have to repeat the cmd+c and cmd+v, and 99% of the times the second cmd+c works fine. What is happening? What am I doing wrong? My keyboard is ok, this should be a software problem...

Would appreciate if anyone knows the answer (please also email-me).

Regards,
Paulo Cortez

12-22-2009, 12:53 PM

Doest the same thing happen when you use the menu method of Copy/Paste? I mean, using the Edit drop down in the Menu Bar or the Right Click mouse menu. If that works OK, then:

Well, since Copy overwrites the Clipboard, it must be that your Cmd C isn't working consistently. If the problem were the C Key, you would have noticed entering text. So, I suspect you have an intermittent Cmd Key on your keyboard. Pop that key off and see if there is some dirt or debris under it that might occasionally prevent a full key stroke. A mechanical answer is the most obvious, Occam's razor and all that.

The next thing I'd try is a different keyboard.

12-22-2009, 03:42 PM

You can see your clipboard's contents at any time from the Finder by choosing Edit > Show Clipboard.

You might want to check that from time to time to see if you can narrow down the circumstances. Leave it open (it disappears when the Finder is not the active application) and click back to the Finder after copying to keep an eye on it.

12-22-2009, 03:54 PM

The only time I have ever had that happen is when the open window I was copying from was not highlighted and it never copied the text.

12-22-2009, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by dtravis7

The only time I have ever had that happen is when the open window I was copying from was not highlighted and it never copied the text.

Good point! With multiple windows open, the "focus" needs to remain on the window with the text to be copied. If you accidentally change the focus to another window before executing the Cmd C, nothing is going to copy. In that case, anything left in the Clipboard from the previous copy action will be pasted.

12-23-2009, 12:39 PM

I have exactly the same problem but what I noticed is that it only happens in microsoft applications for me, i am using office 2008. Also I noticed that it only happens when I use cmd+c, if I right click and then click copy it never happens. I have been looking online for a while for someone reporting the same problem but i didnt manage to find anything before today. This is utterly annoying because it is always pasting the previous clipboard instead of the right one. Also with me the second attempt usually always works.

I never had any of this problems with Windows, and I am actually thinking of going back after a year, because of these annoying issues.

12-23-2009, 12:54 PM

Also I just realized that it only happens when I select the text with the mouse and then click cmd-c, if I select the text with the keyboard this does not seem to ever happened. Also if I do cmd-X the text is always cut, so the problem is just with cmd-C.

IT seems to affect other applications apart from the microsoft ones as it can be seem in this thread:
Gmane Loom

12-23-2009, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by tatuman

I never had any of this problems with Windows, and I am actually thinking of going back after a year, because of these annoying issues.

If it is happening there is a reason for it, there are millions of Macs out there and there not millions of complaints so before giving up try more troubleshooting. Try using another keyboard, try running the combo updater, you might just happen on the key with a bit of effort.

12-29-2009, 09:55 AM

Greetings (again),

I was waiting for more experience with my mac but due to the interest in this thread, I will give more information:
- my mac is a macbook pro 2.53 GHz that I bought 1,5 years ago.
- I deeply believe that my keyboard words fine (although I do not have means to test another one).
- this problem is difficult to inspect, since it does not occur all the time but just once in a while (although it is quite annoying).
- I appreciated the edit+show clipboard hint, which helped me to perceive what is happening;
- I believe the problem is this one:
-- when I use the mouse to select the text and then ctrl+c from one window (e.g. macvim) to copy it to another one (e.g. macvim with a different opened file), often the first ctrl+c (copy) does not work.
-- the second time I do the ctrl+c is works fine.
-- this only occurs with some applications (e.g. macvim, firefox) and keyboard (ctrl+c). If I use copy with the mouse it works fine.

If someone finds a nice solution, it would be great for me.
If not, I still will use my mac, because I believe that for laptops it has plenty advantages when compared with windows or even linux.
If not, I will try to change my mental cognition of working, in order to adapt to the copy using the left mouse button (though I am quite used to the ctr+c and ctr+v shorcuts).

This problem is very important for me since I use lot of mac vim for programming and latex writing (as explained in previous message I used linux for many years, thus I am very "glued" to gvim or similar editors).

BTW: I also use lots of terminal. Current terminal has multiple tabs, which is nice, but is there any easy way to set up a simple shortcut to move between terminal tabs? Say, shift+arrow like in linux? I have a portuguese keyboard and the { or } symbols are very hard to type, as I have to use 3 keys (alt+shift+8, yuck!!!).

12-22-2010, 05:40 AM

Greetings,

I have a mac book pro i7 2.66 GHz, though I had the same problem with my previous mac book pro. My operating system is: Mac OS X 10.6.5 (10H574).

I have this annoying problem:

Often, when I select some text with my mouse (wireless but also occurs if I use a wire one) and then use the shortcut ctrl+c (to copy the selected text), the respective paste (ctrl+v) does not work. But, if I try a second time (another ctrl+c) then the paste (ctrl+v) works. This problem occurs within several applications (firefox, chrome, terminal, macvim, word, etc...) and not in a deterministic way. The problem is with the first copy (ctrl+c) which does not copy sometimes (but since this problem is not deterministic, it is quite difficult to discover what is happening).

Does anybody have a similar problem? Is there any solution?

See also my previous thread:

Problem with copy and paste that does not paste the more recent copy?

Regards

12-22-2010, 06:13 AM

ctrl+c and ctrl+v are not the appropriate buttons to use. The correct button combination is cmd (the one with the apple logo on it) +c and cmd+v

- Simon

12-22-2010, 10:05 AM

Sorry, I made a mistake in my previous post. What I meant was really cmd+c and cmd+v. And the problem is that cmd+c sometimes does not work!

12-22-2010, 10:43 AM

Can't see why that is happening at all, see if there are any updates for your system, if so install them and see if that clears the problem.

- Simon

12-22-2010, 11:29 AM

I have installed all updates... And I have this problem for more than 2 years... Even with different machines... It also occurred in mac os leopard .

12-22-2010, 12:54 PM

Please do not start a new thread when posting on the same subject and you already have a thread running. Always post back to the same thread. Your threads have been merged.